touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm
by The Princess of Pain
Summary: Two screams ring out. One is Wanda's. The other…The other is Ultron's. I'd love to hear feedback!


touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm

Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers.

Trigger warnings: Canonical Character Death

He didn't start out wanting to care for them. He wanted to use them, and then most likely kill them. Within his first minute of meeting them, he throws those plans out the metaphorical window. Such beautiful hatred, such lovely destruction. Wanda's hair crackle with red magic, and Pietro's hand taps against his side, a blue blur. Hearing what his 'father' did to them only strengthens his resolve. Extinction is the only way to peace. But not for these children. They are extraordinary, and they understand. He can save them, he thinks idly before smiling at them. They smile back, and Ultron thinks that this might be the start to a beautiful friendship.

Plan's take time. Months past, and he finds himself growing more and more attached to the Maximoff orphans. He treats them well, taking them for food, buying Wanda clothes (all red), and Pietro new shoes. He grows to care. But one special time stood out.

He had taken them to a park, and treated then to Cotton Candy. Though he cannot taste the food, the twin looks of bliss on Wanda and Pietro's faces were enough for him. But the best part of the evening was after they were done. They went back and though he disapproved, he understood their excitement. But, they once again surprise him when they come back with one cone of spun sugar and present it to him. Their faces dropped, and Ultron laughs, saying it's fine. Pouting, they go back to return the cone and Ultron sighs, leaning back in the shadows and onto the grass. He puts a hand to the whirling thing in his chest. He doesn't have a heart, but if he did he would love them.

{::::}

He gets the idea soon afterwards, once they go back to the church serving as a home for the twins too sleep. He has a vision. He can build a better version of himself. He can practically see it. With his new body, he will be able to hug them without hurting them. He can eat spun sugar, and braid Wanda's hair without it getting tangled in his wires. He won't hurt Pietro when he throws out an arm to stop him from running holes in the ground. They can be a family. Him, Wanda, Pietro, all together. They can build a better world. That is his vision.

But it goes wrong. Wanda looks inside his vision's head and sees not the beautiful things he wants them to share, but destruction. It's wrong, he tries to explain.

"We have to evolve." He tells them, trying to make them understand, to get the twin expressions of betrayal of their faces. "The world has been remade several times before the dinosaurs came. We can do it." He can see in their faces that they don't get it, and he moves forward to try to explain but at that moment the good doctor decides to attack him. He doesn't think, but moves and she falls to the ground with blank eyes and a gaping hole in her stomach. When he looks up they are gone, and his non-existent heart hurts.

{::::}

"Don't do this." He begs them. He doesn't want to fight them. They are his. Why are they fighting him? He sees Pietro help the archer up out of the corner of his eyes and he understands. The Avengers took them. Red fills his vision as he feels anger burn through him (but not at them. Never at them).

"You haven't given us a choice." Wanda tells him, her face wet with tears and her hands red but shaking. He can't even get a look at Pietro's face, and he hates that this is what it's come too. He looks at her and her brother's blurry form, at the way her eyes glint with determination. He jumps from the train, and tries to pretend that his mechanical heart hasn't just been broken by the two of them.

The clones are coming along nicely. He watches as they look just like him, rough metal and harsh lines. He finds himself missing Wanda's bright smile as she wound her magic around her arm, and Pietro's smirk when one of the new clones asked him to run for them. He misses warm skin and blue eyes. He misses twin laughs and not-needed but nonetheless appreciated hugs. He misses them. He will get them back, and protect them from the hell he plans to reign upon the world, and The Avengers.

The battle comes to quickly. He is everywhere. He sees the archer Pietro helped and fires at him, before pulling up his plane and looking down to see him become a red splatter on the ground (because they took them, and damn if Ultron doesn't believe in tit for tat). He stops. Blinks. Synapse's snap in his head as he tries to understand why he doesn't see Hawkeye riddled with bullet holes, but _Pietro_. For a moment everything stops. _No._

At first, when the robots stop they think they've done it. Then the screaming starts. The first scream is Wanda's. The second though… The second is Ultron's. Every single Ultron clone falls to his knees as they cry out. The Avengers are filled with horror when they realize they are both calling out the same name in grief. A casualty on both sides. Then the moment is over, and Ultron is angrier and trying to get to Wanda (to comfort her, while all except Vision think he wants to kill the remaining Maximoff).

{:::}

"Wanda." He says her name tenderly. She kneels beside him, her eyes red and her magic crackling around her. It hurts to look at her, to see her without her brother by her side. He tried to turn away from the so very wrong image, but her magic stops him.

"If you stay here, you'll die." He tells her, not wanting to see another death. Not hers. Not after Pietro. She smiles at him humorlessly.

"I just did. Do you know how it felt?" She asked rhetorically, bending the vibranium covering his chest apart. He felt his mechanical core lift from his chest, and did nothing more then let out a gasp. She smiled and crushed it in her hand.

"It felt like that." She whispered, letting the chunk of metal fall to the ground. They are falling, so very fast and his vision blurs. He, a robot build by a selfish and fearful man, prays someone will save her and stop this from being her fate. Relief filled him as he spots a flash of red, and he watches as his vision comes forward, and whisks her away. Saving her.

 _Be better than I was, My Vision._ He thinks. The pain is too much, making his vision dark. But in the midst of it, he sees a blue blurred hand reaching out towards him. His eye lights flicker, and a smile curls his lips.

"Pietro." He says, and reaches back as his eyes go dim.

 _A/N: *Sigh* Wasn't that nice? Ultron really did care for them, I think. Not to the extent that he does in this AU, but still. Also, I know that the Ultron issue happened in like three days, but let's just pretend it's lengthened to longer, yeah? Please tell me what you think. It makes me feel like someone is reading this._

 _I am, therefore I spread,_

 _Pain_


End file.
